Adam Curtis: “We don’t read newspapers because the journalism is so boring”

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Controversial documentary maker Adam Curtis interviewed in The New Statesman. An interesting read. One of the things he discusses is what he calls Static Culture: the idea that our culture is continually feeding off the past without changing it sufficiently to move forward. I love the phrase, “the dead won’t go away.”

You could say the same about the media industry. Nobody ever retires. We still get Humphreys on Today on Radio 4, and Dimbleby doing the election coverage.

If you look at The Stone Roses who are touring the world playing one album from 1989, is this a byproduct of what you’re talking about?

Yes, it’s an incredibly static time. Why do you think we’ve got so many zombie movies? It’s quite obvious – it’s so obvious when you know it – it’s because the dead won’t go away. We are surrounded by the dead. Okay, The Stone Roses are touring live, but it’s a dead album. There’s a lot of music – like Kurt Cobain and all these people – they’re dead. The Rolling Stones; the music is dead, but it won’t go away. It’s constantly replayed to us, and it is like zombie culture. So many things just go back and dig up the bloody grave.